Managing Presets in Photoshop CS6

Managing Presets Via the Pickers and Panel

Photoshop presets are predefined items that you
choose from a picker, such as brushes on the Brush
Presets panel or picker or swatches on the Swatches
panel. Other presets are found in less obvious locations, such as on the Contour pickers in some panels
of the Layer Style dialog and on the Gradient picker
in the Gradient Fill dialog. The preset categories
include brushes, swatches, gradients, styles, patterns,
contours, custom shapes, and tools. A collection of
saved presets that can be loaded onto a picker is
called a library.

New presets are created in various ways, such as
when you define a pattern via the Define Pattern
command, add a swatch to the Swatches panel, add
a style to the Styles panel, create a gradient in the
Gradient Editor dialog, or create a tool preset or
brush.

How Are Presets Created?
All of the following methods will produce a preset:

Customize a brush using the Brush panel, then
click the New Brush button on the Brush or Brush
Presets panel, or on the Brush Preset picker, which
opens from the Options bar.

Click the New Swatch of Foreground Color
button on the Swatches panel to add the current
Foreground color as a swatch.

Create a tool preset by clicking the New Tool
Preset button on the Tool Presets panel or the
Tool Preset picker.

Create a gradient by clicking New in the Gradient
Editor, which opens if you select the Gradient tool,
then click the Gradient thumbnail on the Options
bar, in the Gradient Fill dialog, or in the Layer Style
dialog (for a Gradient Overlay effect).

Create a style by clicking the New Style button
on the Styles panel or by clicking New Style in the
Layer Style dialog.

For a gradient, in the Gradient Editor, click Save;
or choose Save Gradients from the Gradient
picker menu in the Gradient Fill dialog (for
a gradient fill layer) or on the Gradient picker
(Options bar, with the Gradient tool chosen).

For a pattern, choose Save Patterns from the
Pattern picker menu in the Layer Style
dialog for the Pattern Overlay effect, in the Edit > Fill dialog (Pattern chosen on the Use menu), or
in the Pattern Fill dialog (for a fill layer).

In the Save dialog, enter a name, keep the default
extension and location, then click Save.

Relaunch Photoshop to make your new library
appear on the panel and/or preset picker menu
and on the menu in the Preset Manager.

To replace an existing library, in step 2 above,
click the library name in the scroll window, click
Save, then click Replace in the alert dialog.

To load a library of presets onto a panel or picker via
an individual panel or picker, follow the steps below.

To load a library of presets:

Choose a preset library name in one of these
locations:

The menu on the Brush Presets, Styles, Swatches,
or Tool Presets panel.

The Custom Shape picker menu on the
Options bar (the Custom Shape tool must be
selected first).

The Gradient picker menu in the Gradient
Editor dialog (the Gradient tool must be selected
first, then the Gradient thumbnail clicked on the
Options bar).

In the alert dialog, click Append to add the
chosen library of presets to the currents ones on
the panel or picker, or click OK to replace the current presets with those in the library.

Note: If the panel or picker contains unsaved
presets, another alert dialog will appear, giving
you the option to save the existing presets as a
library. Click Don’t Save or Save.

If the library you want to load isn’t in the default
location (and therefore isn’t listed on its related
panel or picker menu), choose Load [preset
name] from the menu, locate the library, then
click Open.

You can restore the default library to any panel or
picker.

To restore the default presets to a panel
or picker:

From a panel or picker menu, choose Reset
[preset name].

When the alert dialog appears, click OK to
replace the existing presets on the panel or
picker with the default ones.

Note: If you made changes to the current presets,
another alert dialog will appear. Click Don’t Save;
or click Save, then use the Save dialog to save the
current presets as a library.

Exporting and Importing Presets

Using the Export/Import Presets dialog, it’s easy to
export and import preset libraries and share them
among Photoshop users on your network.

To export preset libraries:

Choose Edit > Presets > Export/Import Presets.

Click the Export Presets tab, click a preset library
to be exported, then click the right arrowhead.

Repeat for other libraries. (To remove a selected
preset from the list, click the left arrowhead. To remove or add all the presets on the list, click
Remove All or Add All.)

Click a preset library to be imported, then click
the right arrowhead. Repeat for other libraries.
(To remove a selected preset from the list, click
the left arrowhead. To remove or add all the
presets on the list, click Remove All or Add All.)

Click Import Presets.

To import presets from an earlier version of
Photoshop into Photoshop CS6, choose Edit >
Presets > Migrate Presets, then click Yes in the
alert dialog.

In the Export/Import
Presets dialog, for each
selected library we decided
to export, we clicked the
right arrowhead. (Our next
step will be to click Export
Presets.)

Using the Preset Manager

Using the all-inclusive Preset Manager dialog, you can
save and load Photoshop presets of any variety.

To save presets as a library via the Preset
Manager:

To open the Preset Manager, do one of the
following:

Choose Edit > Presets > Preset Manager.

Choose Preset Manager from the menu of any
picker or panel (e.g., the Custom Shape picker or
the Swatches or Styles panel).

On the Brush or Brush Presets panel, click the
Open Preset Manager button.

From the Preset Type menu, choose the category
of presets for which you want to create a library,
or press the shortcut that is listed on the menu.

From the menu in the dialog, choose a view
option for the scroll window (such as Small
Thumbnail or Small List). For Brushes, you can
choose Stroke Thumbnail view to display a sample
of the brush stroke alongside each thumbnail.

Shift-click or Ctrl-click/Cmd-click the presets to be
saved in a library, then click Save Set.

In the Save dialog, enter a name for the new
library, keep the default extension and location,
then click Save.

Click Done to exit the Preset Manager.

Relaunch Photoshop.

To rename a preset when the Preset Manager is
in a thumbnail view, double-click the thumbnail,
then change the name in the dialog. If the Preset
Manager is in a text-only or list view, double-click
the preset name. You can also select multiple presets and then click Rename, in which case
naming dialogs will open in succession.

You can reset any category of presets to the factory
defaults, append (add) more presets to the current
ones on the picker or panel, or replace the current presets with those in a library. Presets on the
pickers and panels remain there when you relaunch
Photoshop. Changes made in the Preset Manager
appear in the corresponding picker, and vice versa.

To load presets via the Preset Manager:

Open the Preset Manager by following step 1 in
the instructions above.

From the Preset Type menu, choose a category of
presets.

Any unsaved presets on the chosen picker will
be deleted in the next step, unless you select the
Append option. To save the current presets as a
library before proceeding, follow steps 4–5 above.

From the menu in the dialog, choose a library
name; or to reload the default library, choose
Reset [preset type]. In the alert dialog, click
Append to add the new library to the current
ones on the picker, or click OK to replace the current presets with the new ones.

Optional: To delete presets from the picker (not
from the library), click a preset to be deleted or
Shift-click or Ctrl-click/Cmd-click multiple presets,
then click Delete. This can’t be undone (but of
course you can reload any library).

Click Done to exit the Preset Manager.

In the Preset Manager
dialog, choose a category
from the Preset Type menu,
select all the presets to be
saved in a library, then click
Save Set.

Creating Tool Presets

For any tool, you can choose a preset (such as a brush),
Options bar settings, and a Foreground color (if applicable), then save that collection of settings as a tool
preset. Thereafter, upon selecting that tool, you can
simply choose your preset from the Tool Preset picker
on the Options bar or from the Tool Presets panel; it
contains all your saved settings. Although tool presets
take some time and effort to set up initially, it’s time
well spent.

To acquaint yourself with the Tool Presets panel,
uncheck Current Tool Only. The tool presets for all
tools display. Click a tool preset; the tool with which
that preset is used becomes selected automatically.
Check Current Tool Only; only presets for the current
tool display. Via the panel or picker menu, you can load
additional presets.

To create a tool preset:

Select a tool and choose Options bar settings for it.
For some tools, such as the brush and shape tools,
the current Foreground color can be included in
the preset; for the Gradient tool, you can include
the currently selected gradient. If you opt to do
this, choose that color or gradient now.

Do either of the following:

At the far left end of the Options bar, click the Tool
Preset picker thumbnail or arrowhead.

Show the Tool Presets panel.

Click the New Tool Preset button on the picker
or panel. The New Tool Preset dialog opens.

Optional: Rename the preset, if desired.

Optional: Check Include Color or Include Gradient
(if listed).

Click OK. The new preset appears on the Tool
Preset picker and the Tool Presets panel.

The presets that are on the Tool Presets panel
(for all tools) will still be there when you relaunch
Photoshop, but will disappear if you replace
them with a library. To preserve your custom pre-sets for future use, see "To save the presets currently on a picker
as a library" at the beginning of this article.